Scottish Executive

Access for Disabled People

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive which ports operating ferry services have adequate disabled access; whether there are any plans to address any lack of adequate disabled access to ports and, if so, when these will be implemented; who will meet the cost of any upgrade or enlargements, and what information it has on what action will be taken against any service not offering adequate facilities.

Nicol Stephen: Passenger terminals and public buildings at ferry ports are covered by Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). The DDA is a reserved matter. Part III of the act deals with access to goods, facilities and services and imposes specific duties on service providers. These duties have been introduced incrementally since 1996, with the remainder to come into force by October 2004. Transport infrastructure, including ports, is already covered by these provisions.

  As the duty will be placed on the harbour authority to comply with the law, any costs incurred in so doing should be met by the harbour authority. Any claim of discrimination under part III of the DDA would ultimately be a matter for the courts.

Cancer

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the survival rates from cancer have been in each NHS board area in each of the last four years.

Malcolm Chisholm: Survival information by NHS board area is published on the ISD website at:

  http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/info3.jsp?pContentID=402&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&

  The most recent five-year survival data available is for patients diagnosed over the period 1991–95.

Drugs Misuse

Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive which communities will benefit from Tackling Drugs Misuse, the £3 million project announced by the Minister for Communities on 5 February 2004.

Ms Margaret Curran: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

  The allocation of Tackling Drugs Misuse funding has been made to 36 partnerships to benefit communities in these areas. However, the targeting of these allocations on specific communities is a matter for local decision. For information the 36 partnerships are shown in the following table:

  

 Partnership


 Aberdeen Great Northern


 Alloa South and East


 Argyll and Bute


 Ayr North


 Blantyre/North Hamilton


 Cambuslang


 Dundee Social Inclusion Partnerships 1


 Dundee Social Inclusion Partnerships 2


 East Ayrshire Coalfields


 Levern Valley


 Edinburgh Craigmillar


 Edinburgh Strategic Programme


 Edinburgh North


 Edinburgh South


 Falkirk


 Fife


 Glasgow Drumchapel


 Glasgow East End


 Glasgow Greater Govan


 Glasgow Gorbals


 Glasgow Greater Easterhouse


 Glasgow Greater Pollok


 Glasgow Milton


 Glasgow North


 Glasgow Smaller Areas


 Glasgow Springburn


 Girvan


 Inverclyde


 Motherwell North


 North Ayrshire


 North Lanarkshire


 Paisley


 Stirling


 Capital City Partnership


 Glasgow Alliance

Drugs Misuse

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what support it gives to the "How to Drug Proof your Kids" seminar series run by Care for the Family.

Euan Robson: The Executive does not provide support to the "How to Drug Proof your Kids" seminar series run by Care for the Family.

  Drugs education, in line with national guidelines, is already available in 94% of Scottish schools. Our Know the Score communications activities are providing factual and accurate information for parents and young people about the risks from drugs, for example through a free and confidential information line, a website and literature.

Family Law

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to pilot family mediation schemes, either based on the New Approaches to Contact schemes or the family resolution pilots taking place in England.

Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Executive recognise the importance of mediation in helping families to resolve difficulties and arrange contact arrangements that are in the best interests of their children.

  To this end, we provide grant aid to Family Mediation Scotland and ten local mediation services. We have no immediate plans to pilot schemes like those currently taking place in England. However, we will consider the outcomes of those schemes with interest.

  We published on 5 April our consultation Family Matters: Improving Family Law in Scotland. Our consultation contains proposals that we believe will minimise acrimony between separating couples, and seeks views about how we can strengthen the contribution of the voluntary sector in securing good outcomes for families.

Family Law

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any intention to review family contact orders and registered agreements, including the enforcement of such orders, to ensure a better degree of compliance.

Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Executive believe that it is generally best for both parents to continue to be involved in their child’s upbringing following separation or divorce, where this is in the interests of the child. We have no immediate plans to review contact orders and registered agreements.

  We are aware of recent work by the UK Government in this area which we are considering with interest. Our consultation Family Matters: Improving Family Law in Scotland, published on 5 April, seeks views on how the law works in practice.

Further and Higher Education

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-7013 by Mr Jim Wallace on 29 March 2004, what additional support and funding has been awarded to further and higher education institutions that offer support and training for students with mental health conditions.

Mr Jim Wallace: The information is not held centrally in the form requested.

  The measure of student activity used to inform the core funding provided to colleges by the Scottish Further Education Funding Council is weighted to take account of students with special educational needs. This can either be in the case of programmes specifically designed for such students or students on "mainstream" courses who require additional support to access the course. These weightings can be applied to students experiencing difficulties in learning associated with mental health problems.

  Colleges can also offer additional support towards study and travel-related expenses to a disabled student who, by virtue of their disability, is obliged to incur additional expenditure arising from their attendance at college. This additional support can be offered to students with mental health difficulties.

  Through Beattie funding we support a programme of staff training activities, provided through the Scottish Further Education Unit, for the further education sector to raise awareness and understanding of student mental health issues. So far, two days of training have been assigned within the full programme to explore these issues.

  In higher education institutions, the Disabled Students’ Premium is allocated on the basis of the number of students in the institution receiving the Disabled Students Allowance. The Disabled Students’ Premium was introduced to assist institutions with the additional costs incurred in providing additional materials and services for disabled students.

Health

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many finished consultant episodes (FCE) there have been in each year since 1995.

Malcolm Chisholm: Finished Consultant Episodes are an activity measure used in the NHS in England and Wales. FCE figures differ slightly from the usual hospital episode figures published by the Information and Statistics Division (ISD) of the Common Services Agency.

  The FCE for non-obstetric, non-psychiatric in-patient and day case discharges in each financial year since 1995 are presented in the table.

  

 
 Year 
  Ending 31 March


 1995
 1996
 1997
 1998
 1999
 2000
 2001
 2002
 2003


 FCE’s1,2,3,4
 951,187
 984,675
 1,013,491
 1,043,943
 1,076,708
 1,073,398
 1,083,924
 1,065,834
 1,033,445



  Notes:

  1. This information was extracted from the SMR01 linked data set maintained by ISD Scotland. SMR01 records (Scottish Morbidity Records) record all in-patient and day case discharges from non-obstetric and non-psychiatric specialties in NHS Hospitals in Scotland. Probability matching methods have been used to link together individual hospital records for each patient, thereby creating "linked" patient histories.

  2. An FCE is defined as a period of patient care under one consultant in one health care provider. The figures do not represent the number of patients, as one person may have several episodes within the year.

  3. FCEs have been estimated from the SMR01 linked data. Where two or more SMR01 episodes that follow directly from each other without a break are coded with the same consultant, they are counted as one FCE. This may not exactly match the English definition if there is a transfer to another hospital under the same consultant as it will be counted as one FCE.

  4. In this particular analysis, the specialties of orthodontics and paediatric dentistry, oral surgery and oral medicine, restorative dentistry, convalescence, spinal paralysis, surgical paediatrics, medical paediatrics, special care baby unit, geriatric assessment, geriatric long-stay and young chronic sick have been excluded in order to show figures that are most easily compared with English FCE figures.

Health

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many children under 15 contracted methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in each NHS board area in each of the last four years.

Malcolm Chisholm: A national mandatory hospital infection surveillance system was introduced in 2001 to monitor MRSA blood infections. The number of reported paediatric bacteraemias (i.e. 15 years old or less) is three in 2001, 13 in 2002 and six in 2003.

  There is no breakdown by NHS board to protect patient confidentiality.

Health

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what pilot schemes in health care it has supported since 1999; how much has been spent on each scheme, and how many have been rolled out.

Malcolm Chisholm: The Scottish Executive Health Department does not maintain a central record of all health care pilot schemes. The following table sets out a list of pilot schemes which the department is aware of and which it has initiated since 1999. Health care has been interpreted as including the prevention of ill-health, in line with the Executive’s aim of improving the health of the people of Scotland. The list should not be regarded as definitive.

  

 Title of Pilot Scheme
 Cost
 Roll 
  Out Status


 National Health Demonstration 
  Projects:
Starting Well: aims to demonstrate that child health can 
  be improved by a programme of activities that intensively 
  supports families within their own homes and supports the 
  communities within which they live.
Have a Heart Paisley aims to show how the combined efforts 
  of community, voluntary, local authority and NHS partners 
  can transform community-based action to improve heart health 
  in Paisley.
 
 
 
Healthy Respect: works with young people (aged 13 to 25) 
  in Lothian to develop positive attitudes to their own sexuality 
  and that of others, with the aim of reducing unwanted teenage 
  pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.
  
 
£4.386 million from 1 November 2000 to 30 October 2004.
 
 
£7.686 million during initial and transition phase (1 November 
  2000 to 30 October 2004). Consideration is currently being 
  given to Phase 2 funding.
£4.867 million during initial and transition phase (1 November 
  2000 to 30 October 2004). Consideration is currently being 
  given to Phase 2 funding.
 Each project is being externally 
  evaluated, and the lessons from them are being disseminated 
  widely, to NHS boards, local authorities and the voluntary 
  sector, to inform local decisions on service development. 
  Three National Learning Networks based at NHS Health Scotland 
  have been set up to share the lessons from each project, 
  as well as the wider evidence base on early years, heart 
  health, sexual health and well-being interventions. 


 Breastfeeding Pilot in Ayrshire 
  and Arran, as part of a general initiative to develop peer 
  support projects in areas of multiple disadvantage.
 £60,000 non-recurrent funding 
  (December 2002).
 


 Focus on Food: a project in 
  North Lanarkshire and Clackmannanshire, to develop a method 
  for professional development of primary school teachers, 
  through contact with their cluster secondary home economics 
  staff, to support cooking and food education in primary 
  schools.
 £197,000 between April 2001 
  and June 2003.
 Promoters of pilot were recommended 
  to seek support from local authorities across Scotland to 
  roll the scheme out beyond the initial two pilot areas.


 Promoting physical activity 
  with older people in care homes: a collaborative project 
  with the National Gerontological Nursing Demonstration Project 
  at Inverness Royal Hospital to inform the future development 
  of resources and training on the promotion of physical activity 
  within care home settings.
 £10,000 (March 2003-April 2004)
 Practice development strategy 
  will be prepared to enable the implementation of best practice.


 Runcorn Initiative: a pilot 
  in NHS Ayrshire and Arran to identify those patients aged 
  over 65 who are currently experiencing periods of multiple 
  admission or may be at risk of multiple admission, and to 
  test whether interventions can reduce the number of such 
  admissions.
 £50,000
 Project due to run until August 
  2004, after which its roll-out potential will be considered.


 Improved Health Access Pilot: 
  to look at ways, in Scotland’s most deprived communities, 
  of addressing issues such as access to treatment for major 
  disease such as Coronary Heart Disease, as well as the uptake 
  of screening and prevention services. 
 £15 million over two years, 
  starting in summer 2004.
 


 Helping stimulant users: a 
  pilot treatment service in Aberdeen, to follow up a recommendation 
  in a report by the Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse.
 £13,000
 Pilot taking place this year. 
  The expectation is that lessons will be learned which can 
  be rolled out to other areas.


 Changing Children’s Services 
  Fund: a project in West Lothian to develop an integrated 
  approach to children and young people’s mental health across 
  the continuum of promotion, prevention and care.
 £150,000 over three years from 
  2003.
 Funding is intended to ensure 
  robust evaluation of the project, after which decisions 
  can be taken on roll-out.


 Psychological Interventions: 
  pilots in Forth Valley, Dumfries and Galloway, Ayrshire 
  and Arran and Greater Glasgow Primary Care (Operating Divisions) 
  to expand and improve access to local psychological intervention 
  services. Supported by Scottish Development Centre for Mental 
  Health and Glasgow Institute of Psychosocial Interventions.
 £290,000 between November 2000 
  and October 2001.
 Pilots, with findings from 
  national census, informed publication of detailed guidance 
  issued in October 2001, as part of the Framework for Mental 
  Health Services in Scotland, to care agencies. Guidance 
  sets out a template for all agencies on how best to organise 
  and improve the delivery of these services on a co-ordinated 
  and sensible basis.


 The Place 2 Be (P2B): offers 
  training to counsellors to help children deal with emotional 
  reactions to difficulties they experience during school 
  years (divorce, deprivation, abandonment, long-term family 
  illness and death, domestic violence, homelessness, eating 
  disorders, physical or sexual abuse and the experiences 
  of war zone refugees). Currently being piloted in Balgreen 
  and Murrayburn Primary Schools in Edinburgh.
 £150,000 from 2003-04 to 2005-06.
 Discussions are under way about 
  the possibility of extending P2B to other schools in the 
  area. P2B is currently working with 83 schools across the 
  UK and aims to provide direct support to 250 schools by 
  2005 to 75,000 children annually.


 Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) 
  aims to improve awareness and understanding of mental health 
  and mental illness amongst the public. Between Jan – May 
  2004, 15 Instructors are delivering MHFA training sessions 
  throughout Scotland. 
 £633,000 from 2003-04 to 2005-06.
 An independent evaluation of 
  these courses is being undertaken and the first results 
  will be available in June 2004. Subject to the results of 
  the evaluation, the MHFA course will be adapted and redesigned 
  for use across Scotland and a national roll out of the course 
  is planned over the next two years.


 Applied Suicide Intervention 
  Skills Training (ASIST): Living Works Education (LWE), a 
  training organisation based in Canada, will run two separate 
  weeks of ASIST training. Those who become qualified ASIST 
  trainers will then be able to cascade the training to local 
  organisations. LWE will also undertake a project to identify 
  the key elements of a National Suicide Prevention and Intervention 
  training strategy for Scotland.
 £237,000 from 2003-04 to 2005-06.
 The objectives include:
establishing a baseline training inventory which can be 
  used for long-term evaluation;
recommending appropriate levels and types of training for 
  each local authority;
recommending a delivery structure for Scotland, and
providing additional information to assist in determining 
  a national training strategy.


 Autistic spectrum disorder: 
  pilots to develop one-stop shops in NHS Lothian and NHS 
  Greater Glasgow providing multi-agency services for adults 
  with autistic spectrum disorders and their families.
 £250,000 for each Board for 
  three years from 2003-04 to 2005-06.
 Part of the funding is to be 
  used for evaluation and future roll-out will depend on the 
  outcome of the evaluation.


 Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions 
  pilot in Ayrshire and Arran.
 £2.5 million
 Project now incorporated into 
  the ePharmacy Programme and implementation of the new community 
  pharmacy contract. The pilot was primarily about processes 
  (information and data transfer) but will now support aspects 
  of direct patient services.


 Emergency Dental Service Pilots 
  in five areas of Scotland, starting between 2001 and 2002. 
  
 £378,105 between 2001-02 and 
  2002-03.
 Following evaluation of the 
  pilot additional funding of £1.5 million was issued in 2003-04 
  all to NHS boards to set up and develop emergency dental 
  services. This funding will also allow those NHS boards 
  with emergency dental service pilots to continue these substantively.


 Family Health Nurse Pilot: 
  two year initial pilot, from February 2001 to October 2003, 
  training 31 family health nurses in four remote and rural 
  NHS board areas. Part of wider WHO Europe pilot project 
  to develop the role.
 £1 million
 Further phase of development 
  agreed following independent evaluation including limited 
  development in a further NHS Board area and further consolidation 
  within pilot areas.


 Minor Ailments Scheme: pilots 
  in NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Tayside started on 1 April 
  2001.
 £202,000
 Further roll-out across Scotland 
  will be linked to the ePharmacy Programme and implementation 
  of the new community pharmacy contract. This is about process 
  and impact and has been subject to independent evaluation.


 Oral Cancer Screening
 £25,000
 The project is on-going in 
  the west of Scotland and should report early in 2005.


 Personal Medical Services (PMS) 
  Pilots
(PMS pilots were made possible by the NHS Primary Care 
  Act 1997.)
 £17,677,722 
Investment Allocation from 2001-04
£1,516,125 
Support Allocation from 2001-04
 112 pilot schemes as at 1st 
  October 2003.
The new contracts mean for primary medical services that 
  all existing pilots move to a substantive agreement under 
  Section 17C of the NHS (Scotland) Act 1978 or a GMS contract 
  from 1 April 2004. The investment and support funding is 
  now a mainstream allocation within the unified budget. All 
  pilots have been subject to local evaluation.


 Focus on Carers pilot: to identify 
  hidden carers through GP practices.
 £37.5,000 (2001-02 to 2002-03)
 Results evaluated in Good Practice 
  Guide published in 2003.


 Focus on Carers pilot to identify 
  hidden carers through pharmacies.
 £50,000
 Results evaluated in Good Practice 
  Guide published in 2003.


 Colorectal Cancer Screening 
  Pilot in Fife, Grampian and Tayside.
 £4.262 million between 1999-2000 
  to 2003-04.
 Planning process for introduction 
  of a national colorectal cancer screening programme is expected 
  to take around five years.


 Liquid-based Cytology Project 
  pilot.
 £219,000 between 2000-01 and 
  2001-02.
 Liquid-based Cytology was fully 
  introduced into the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme 
  by 2 April 2004.


 South-east Scotland Cancer 
  Network (SCAN): evaluation of Managed Clinical Network.
 £65,000 (2003-04 to 2004-05)
 Report of evaluation by University 
  of Glasgow has been fed back to network to inform next steps.


 National Demonstration Managed 
  Clinical Network in Vascular Services (Lanarkshire).
 £235,000 (2001-02 to 2004-05)
 Evaluation of the network due 
  to be completed 2005.


 National Demonstration Managed 
  Clinical Network in Neurology with particular reference 
  to Stroke (Lanarkshire and Institute of Neurological Sciences, 
  Southern General, Glasgow.)
 £227,000 (2001-02 to 2004-05)
 Evaluation due to be completed 
  2005. Emerging lessons already being disseminated through 
  MCN Sub-Group of National Advisory Committee on Stroke.


 Palliative Care Managed Clinical 
  Network: evaluation of the MCN in NHS Borders.
 £40,000 (2001-02 to 2002-03)
 Emerging lessons being disseminated 
  through Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care.


 Nursing and Midwifery Return 
  to Practice Scheme: one year initial pilot returning 132 
  nurses to NHSScotland.
 £250,000. Further £1 million 
  allocated in 2002-03 to 2003-04 due to success of pilot.
 Pilot has so far brought around 
  300 people back to nursing, with target of 400-600 to be 
  achieved.



  In addition, the health department funded the Remote and Rural Areas Resource Initiative (RARARI) from April 2000 with a budget of £8 million spread over four financial years. During this period, RARARI has supported a wide range of health related projects covering research, audit, education, training and service development. Our National Health included a requirement on NHS boards to plan to incorporate successful RARARI projects in mainstream programmes from April 2002.

Health

Alasdair Morgan (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance there is for hospitals and clinics on the transport of patients from rural areas to attend appointments.

Malcolm Chisholm: Guidance on patients’ entitlement to financial help in meeting reasonable travelling and related costs incurred in attending hospitals and clinics for NHS treatment issued to NHS boards on 21 August 1996 in MEL (1996) 70. The Management Executive Letter also outlines the arrangements for accessing NHS ambulance service transport and for transfers between treatment centres. And it clarifies the transport support entitlement of patients’ visitors and of some specific patient groups.

  I am advised that a number of NHS boards have produced supplementary guidance covering local appointment and related transport booking arrangements and the availability of voluntary transport services.

Hospital-Aquired Infection

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take to review infection control systems in neonatal and paediatric units.

Malcolm Chisholm: We have set new standards for the control of health care associated infection (HAI) including cleaning services. The Standards cover all hospitals settings (including neonatal and paediatric units). Hospital performance against the standards is assessed by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland.

  We have also established an Hospital Acquired Infection Task Force led by the Chief Medical Officer to undertake a programme of work to support the NHS in tackling HAI. The task force has already drawn up a code of practice on the management of hygiene and HAI and provided revised technical requirements for cleaning processes.

Hospitals

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken to encourage Lothian University Hospital NHS Trust to reduce the current £10 per day parking charge at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary (ERI) for (a) NHS staff, (b) other ERI staff and (c) visitors.

Malcolm Chisholm: I issued revised guidance to the NHS on hospital car park charging on 1 April 2004.

  The guidance states that car park charging should not be introduced as a means of generating income but charging may be justified if it is to cover any significant costs in providing or improving parking facilities such as maintenance, administration and security costs. Charging might also be justified if it is used to better manage car parking facilities by discouraging unauthorised users (e.g. fly-parkers) although in so doing, measures taken to discourage unauthorised users must not be detrimental to the car parking arrangements for staff, patients and visitors. Widespread charging of excessive rates to staff, patients or visitors cannot be justified.

  The guidance covers all hospitals in Scotland, although legal restraints covering the NHS mean that it cannot be applied to existing contracts, such as that at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) between Lothian NHS Board and Consort Healthcare Ltd. It will, however, cover all such contracts when they are revised or renewed.

  Brian Cavanagh, Chairman of Lothian NHS Board has indicated that he has already raised the issue of car parking charges at RIE with Consort Healthcare as he recognises its importance for staff, patients and their families. Mr Cavanagh wishes to ensure that it is an issue NHS Lothian can positively address as part of the refinancing discussions with Consort Healthcare due to take place later this year on the funding arrangements at RIE.

  Lothian NHS Board has negotiated concessionary rates at the hospital for members of staff, visitors who have to remain on site for considerable lengths of time and for patients who have to make numerous, repeat visits.

Learning Disabilities

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when non-departmental public bodies will commence annual publication of the number of their employees with learning disabilities and their plans to develop employment opportunities for such employees.

Andy Kerr: The employment provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, which will be extended from October 2004 to cover employers of all sizes, apply to non-departmental public bodies. These provisions do not include a requirement to publish annually the numbers of employees with learning disabilities or any other form of disability.

  Measures taken by individual public bodies in respect of employees with learning disabilities are operational matters for those bodies, and information on them is not held centrally.

Museums

Alasdair Morgan (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what support is available to ensure the continued operation of Kilmartin House Museum.

Mr Frank McAveety: Although the Scottish Executive provides grant-in-aid for the Scottish Museums Council, it does not provide core funding for the local authority and independent museums throughout Scotland. The local authorities have a statutory duty to make adequate cultural provision, and are at liberty to provide funding to support the operation of independent museums such as Kilmartin House.

NHS Funding

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with NHS Fife with regard to its expected deficit for the financial year ending on 31 March 2004.

Malcolm Chisholm: Staff in the Performance Management and Accounting Division of The Scottish Executive Health Department meet regularly with all NHS boards to discuss their financial position. The last meeting with NHS Fife took place on 16 March 2004. The forecast financial position for 2003-04 was discussed at the meeting.

NHS Staff

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of NHS workers is classified as managers.

Malcolm Chisholm: NHSScotland staff classified as managers are employed in senior management grades and in the administrative and clerical (A&C) grades. Information on numbers of staff in these grades in NHSScotland is published by ISD Scotland in Sections A and G of the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce. However, this centrally held data does not explicitly identify how many of the staff in A&C grades are classified as managers.

NHS Staff

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of NHS staff in each NHS board was classified as managers in each of the last three years.

Malcolm Chisholm: NHSScotland staff classified as managers are employed in senior management grades and in the administrative and clerical (A&C) grades. Information on numbers of staff in these grades in NHSScotland is published by ISD Scotland in Sections A and G of the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce. However, this centrally held data does not explicitly identify how many of the staff in A&C grades are classified as managers.

NHS Staff

Campbell Martin (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of (a) nursing, (b) dental, (c) medical and (d) paramedical staff have daily or regular patient or client contact, broken down by NHS board area.

Malcolm Chisholm: The information requested is not held centrally.

Police

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-7031 by Cathy Jamieson on 29 March 2004, what the "similar training" in mental health issues for probationary constables consisted of and whether this included training in attention deficit hyperkinetic disorder.

Cathy Jamieson: I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-7031. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

  It was intended to make clear that although a new format for initial training for probationary constables was introduced in September 2003, there was no change to the content of that training in respect of mental health disorders. Attention Deficit Hyperkinetic Disorder was, and remains, one of the mental health disorders included in this training.

Renewable Energy

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how it will measure emissions savings resulting from the generation of electricity by wind turbines.

Lewis Macdonald: Emissions savings from wind power will vary depending upon the fuel that is displaced - displacement of coal will result in higher emission savings than displacement of gas. The most recently published data shows that wind generation in Scotland in 2002 accounted for 450 GigaWatt hours (GWh). This level of output could reduce carbon emissions by between 45,000 and 90,000 tonnes.

Renewable Energy

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to commission nationwide studies on the effect of wind turbines on the environment in order to comply with Council Directive 2001/42/EC, which comes into force in July 2004.

Lewis Macdonald: We have no plans to commission such studies as the directive will apply to new plans and programmes started on or after 21 July 2004, or old plans if they will not be adopted before July 2006. Individual wind farm developments are, and will remain, subject to the requirements of the environmental impact assessment regulations.

Renewable Energy

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will bring forward new planning guidelines on wind farm developments that take account of people’s environment and amenity.

Mrs Mary Mulligan: The Executive is satisfied that existing guidance and advice already takes proper account of both these issues.

Schools

Rhona Brankin (Midlothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether parents in rural areas should have the same right to choose schools as parents in urban areas.

Peter Peacock: Any parent in Scotland may make a request for their child to attend a particular school. The education authority has a duty to grant such a request except in the circumstances specified in the Education (Scotland) Act 1980.

Schools

Rhona Brankin (Midlothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many times it has intervened to prevent the closure of rural schools since 1999.

Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive has a role only in some prescribed categories of school closure proposal. In those cases, an education authority cannot implement a closure decision without the consent of the Scottish ministers. No applications for such consent have been refused since 1999.

Schools

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will make a decision about the future of Holy Trinity Primary School in Stirling.

Peter Peacock: We expect to reach a decision shortly.

Sex Offenders

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how it is addressing the issue of sex offenders in the consultation on reducing reoffending in Scotland.

Cathy Jamieson: Reduce, Rehabilitate, Reform , the Scottish Executive’s consultation on reducing reoffending, is inviting views on how we can improve the management of all categories of offenders – including sex offenders – in order to reduce their reoffending.

  The Scottish Executive is fully committed to reducing reoffending by sex offenders and is currently taking forward a number of initiatives:

  Delivery of sex offender treatment programmes in prison.

  Implementation of the 73 wide-ranging recommendations contained in the Report by the Expert Panel on Sex Offending, chaired by Lady Cosgrove.

  Strengthening of the throughcare service available to prisoners on release from prison back into the community. Throughcare provision for high risk and sex offenders will be considered as a priority.

  Improvements to the sex offenders register made by the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which comes into force on 1 May 2004.

  Any proposals in relation to sex offenders submitted in response to the reducing reoffending consultation will therefore be considered in the context of these on-going initiatives.

Suicide

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what further measures it will take to combat suicide other than the work undertaken by the National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Well-Being.

Malcolm Chisholm: As part of the Choose Life National Strategy and Action Plan, the Choose Life National Implementation Support Team is currently engaging with all Scottish Executive Departments, to ensure that suicide prevention is a focus not only of the mental health agenda but also part of wider Scottish Executive policy work. Appendix three of the Choose Life National Strategy and Action Plan identifies the main policies of the Scottish Executive which support and link with Choose Life.

  Some of these policies include:

  Framework for Mental Health Service in Scotland (Scottish Executive, 1997);

  The Health Improvement Challenge (Scottish Executive, 2003);

  For Scotland’s Children – Better integrated children’s services, (Scottish Executive, 2001);

  Better Communities in Scotland: Closing the Gap (Scottish Executive, 2002);

  Plan for Action on Alcohol Problems (Scottish Executive, 2002);

  Mind The Gaps: Meeting the needs of people with co-occurring substance misuse and mental health problems (Scottish Executive, 2003);

  Health, Social and Related Services for Mentally Disordered Offenders in Scotland (NHS MEL (1999) 5) (Scottish Executive, 1999), and

  "Suicide is Everyone’s Business". Suicide Risk Management Strategy and Custodial Care, an Inter-Agency Approach (2002).

Suicide

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to examine what lessons can be learned from other countries in relation to how they deal with combating suicide.

Malcolm Chisholm: Choose Life has commissioned research into suicide prevention and intervention from leading researchers throughout the world. Responses to date have come from 14 countries. We are also exchanging good practice and information with colleagues in Ireland, Slovenia, New Zealand and Finland. This will add to our knowledge and future strategic planning on suicide prevention in Scotland.

  ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) will shortly be delivered in Scotland by experts form Canada and Australia. The Scottish trainees on the course will be joined by Norwegian colleagues. In addition, the visitors from Canada, who are internationally recognised World Health Organization experts on suicide prevention, will help review the Scottish approach to community development and training in the field of suicide prevention.

Tartan Day

Mike Watson (Glasgow Cathcart) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what it considers to be its achievements in its participation in this year’s Tartan Day celebrations in the United States of America.

Mr Andy Kerr: Tartan Day offered Scottish ministers and members of the Parliamentary delegation an excellent opportunity to promote Scotland as a good place to visit, study in, live and do business with.

  The programme, co-ordinated and supported by the Scottish Executive, around Tartan Day 2004 was the most extensive yet with a range of events promoting both contemporary and traditional Scotland. These events included an Executive sponsored Scotland Run and Pavilion in Central Park which brought together 20 organisations showcasing some of the best of Scottish tourism, business, education and creative industries. Organisations involved included the Executive and the Scottish Parliament, VisitScotland, Scottish Development International, Universities, Glasgow and Edinburgh City Councils and Scottish Screen. In addition the Executive and Scottish Parliament co-hosted a reception for over 300 guests representing academic, political and business leaders from the New York area. The First Minister and I represented the Scottish Executive at these and other Tartan Day events including "Dressed to Kilt", promoting contemporary Scottish design, a reception at the British Embassy in Washington DC and the Icons of Scotland Awards dinner, co-sponsored by VisitScotland and Scotland magazine.

  Alongside these promotional events, key policy areas were successfully pursued. The First Minister gave a keynote address on "The New Scotland; Attracting Fresh Talent" at Columbia University as well as hosting a joint SDI/Forbes Magazine seminar promoting the excellence of Scotland's Financial Services. The First Minister visited Baltimore and met with Mayor O'Malley to discuss how that city has met the challenges that also face Scotland in attracting fresh talent to address population decline and increase economic regeneration. I spoke at a VisitScotland lunch for over 40 key media contacts to promote Scotland's growing global importance as a destination for business tourism as well as undertaking visits to learn more of the urban regeneration work being carried out in both New York and Washington as part of their business improvement districts. I also met with a number of US businesses already investing in Scotland and considering further expansion here.

  Good coverage of these events were secured in both the US print and broadcast media with the focus being on our Fresh Talent initiative. The programme of events undertaken this year and the very positive reaction from US businesses offer us an excellent platform to build on for 2005.